The Long and Short of It (cont.)

[HKHaugan]

On to the specifics-------

Taking the Lord’s cue when He asked Adam, “Where are you?” we want to see where we are in our every next moment and its momentary pressure. Here is Paul’s counsel, “Since we live by the Spirit let us keep in step with the Spirit (Gal.5:25).” Now follow his counsel as you read the following. Think of it like this: you are in a two dimensional world, yourself and others. In the first, where are you spiritually at any given moment and, in the second, where are you spiritually when you are with others and the unexpected happens?

Here’s the first:
You are in a line at the grocery store. Someone breaks in front of you.
You get another telemarketer on the phone in the middle of dinner.
You are in a hurry to get home, sitting at an intersection waiting for the light to change and the car in front doesn’t move when it changes to green.
Your credit card is refused at a dinner out with friends.
Your most unfavorite politician is on TV again pushing a policy you don’t like.
Your favorite team lost---again.
You just spilled wine on your host’s new white carpet.
You found that you were just made fun of among people you don’t know, or do know.
You were late, you were speeding and you just got stopped.
To these add your most embarrassing, demanding, unexpected moments.

Here’s the second:
Shift from yourself to people you happen to run into that are a bundle of needs. They sense your interest in them through a casual conversation you happened into. One of them allows how he is 45 and going nowhere and asks “Where have I been with my life and where will I end up?”
In another conversation someone reveals their frustration with a boss, wife, husband, children, neighbor, which is driving them up a wall. For them life is just plain out of control.

From moment to moment people around you seems to present more and more demands, not on what you know and are comfortable with but on what you don’t know and are not comfortable with. What do you say or do when tragedy strikes a friend or colleague and they look to you for answers? It’s at these moments you realize your inadequacy. As disciples of Jesus we are His witnesses and if you’re in step with the Holy Spirit those moments are a gift to bring Him in either through your silent presence, your extending a hand in prayer or the words He gives you for their comfort.

Faced with these two situations here’s the question: for both yourself in the first set and the others in the second set what is your reaction and why? Remember, each is a situation in an every next moment when the unexpected happens and each of us as a disciple of Jesus is called to respond. These are not major world issues over which we have no control. These are the everyday realities in which we are involved. These are the little things that according to Scripture are the big things because they are happening right where we are.

Here’s what Jesus has to say about it, “Whoever can be trusted with very little will also be trusted with much and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much…(Lk.16:10).” Handling any or all of those events is beyond our ability without belief, trust and faith. Here are Holy Spirit opportunities. Jesus is shaping us with His Holy Spirit to be like Him and every next moment is an opportunity to witness for Him. He is in our heart to give us His abundant life in every next moment not only for ourselves but for all those others we meet every day.

The reason I start with these seemingly small things is that this is where we live day to day. This is the field where seeds are planted. Some will fall on rocky hearts, some on hard hearts, some in the weeds of no response but some will fall on receptive hearts and the Lord will be blessed. Here is where the Lord is calling us to be spiritually aware and awake. This the door the Lord is opening for us. The best way to meet this age is to walk through that door. The church is not the building but the people who walk in their everyday world spiritually awake and aware. It is the believers who see every next moment as a spiritual moment. Then it is to see every next person as an image of God waiting to be blessed through you regardless of what they believe or who they are. If we think like God thinks, small is big and big is small. Every next moment is really big to God and small is the overwhelming world out there. People are big. World issues are small. The world changes and ends. People last forever. Physical reality is temporary. Spiritual reality is eternal.

There are three things we have to be clear about: spiritual consciousness, authenticity and trust.

First, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience. These are demanding times in our culture and seeing it through spiritual eyes is the Lord’s calling us to come out as His disciples thinking spiritually, feeling spiritually and acting spiritually.

Second, as spiritual beings 100% of our activity is motivated by what we can’t see. Authenticity is the invisible makeup a disciple of Jesus has and presents. This is what people are looking for. This is where the real church is, in the visible authentic faithful hearts of Jesus’ followers.

Third, each of us is self-consciously alone and in need of relational fulfillment. It is not our ‘church’ people need but our honesty, people with whom they can identify. This is the bridge that leads to trust. People who don’t know Him need someone they can trust. Building trusting relationships is Jesus’ call to each of us, the call for every next moment’s awareness.

These three form our basic humanity which is personal, relational and spiritual. Each of us is an image of God with a mind, heart and spirit. It doesn’t really make any difference what a person believes about him or herself. The basic reality is that every human being is a spiritual being which means that everything that exists and everything that happens is derived spiritually and has spiritual significance. The very languages we speak, the culture we have developed, our self-concept, the worldviews we embrace and the way we live, are rooted in a spiritual context of belief, trust, faith, morality, choice, decision and motivation. We are a blend of all of them and all of them are invisible. This is the human condition in every next moment, the really big thing.